Hollywood Domination Chapter 148: Marley and I

Because of the length of the film, the box office of "The Fifth Sally" is actually inherently limited. After all, the length of nearly three hours is almost twice as long as that of ordinary commercial films, so the ticket price is also fixed. It is relatively high, which will screen out some price-sensitive movie fans. It can be said that at the box office, major forecasting agencies are not very optimistic about it-although the special edition for the judges provided in Venice is also three hours, but this is a film festival special case. As for the film studios of various countries, as long as they can buy the copyright, they can still edit some "garbage" time by themselves, or arrange it into episodes and releases. As long as the contract stipulates, Weinstein will not interfere, and even many films After the dealer bought the copyright, it was to sell the DVD of "Sally" in the country.

And after the three-hour original film was selected for the domestic release version, the box office trend became a bit confusing. It is expected that the single hall of the premiere is strong, after all, with the popularity of the two leading actors, if the single hall of the premiere—or the order screening—is not strong, then Weinstein will be a big stumble (the industry regards this This film is regarded as Weinstein's first work after starting his own company, ignoring the production company of Jenny and Chris). Even the high audience rating of 95% failed to raise the forecast of the box office forecasting agency: it is difficult to hear anything bad from fans, and a single venue on the first day does not explain anything.

But no matter what, after getting a single hall of 150,000 yuan, the confidence of the theater chain in this film is also increasing, and they actively contact Weinstein, wanting to increase the number and width of screenings, but the Weinstein Company Their attitude is very cautious: At this stage, they are more concerned about the audience's reputation. After a large-scale release at the box office, it will inevitably attract some bad reviews from non-audiences. A wave of box office from large-scale releases is much more important.

"In fact, this method of spot screening plus carousel screening is to cultivate the hunger of the market, and at the same time increase the screening of the audience," Cesare pointed to the screening schedule on the slide with an infrared laser pointer. "We need to ensure that most of the audience who come to the cinema have an understanding of the theme and style of the movie. Price-sensitive low-income groups? Get rid of high ticket prices, weekend movie groups that seek family entertainment? Use posters and inconvenience If the number of ticket purchases is removed, the fans who are too young will also delay their purchase of tickets with fewer shows, and guide them to read reviews online, all for the sake of—"

"—to ensure that the audience who go to watch the movie is worthy of this movie." Jenny interjected, "The necessary steps for the award-winning film are to induce and control the word-of-mouth of the movie."

"Indeed." Cesare nodded, "Film critics are very tolerant of actors in commercial films. You can act in a bad film, as long as you prove that you are a good actor. Maybe "Pirates of the Caribbean" 2 will be a bad film." film, but as long as it can make money, you will be worth, film critics will understand you, and you also need to make a living. And the audience will understand you even more, as long as they see special effects and funny points, even if the plot is vulgar and has no charm, they will I don't care too much, as long as it's not too ridiculous. When they are watching commercial films, the audience is the best satisfied. Give some laughter, some exquisite special effects, some handsome men and beautiful women's love, they think it is worth returning Ticket prices. Online movie fans may scold, but in reality they can reap high box office. What we want to avoid is to confuse the audience of these two kinds of movies. A Sally" screening room, at least not now."

"Isn't it okay to wait until you get nominated?" asked Jenny. "By then, it will be released on a large scale?"

"Basically, based on the number of votes you get at the time of nomination, there is almost no suspense about whether you can win the award." Cesare replied, "So, yes, after getting the nomination, start to use the wind of the nomination to expand. Release it and continue to make money—this is my thinking, so far, Weinstein seems to think the same as me, but if we want to know how he will operate in the future, we have to continue to study the screening schedule for next week.”

The contract signed between the theater chain and the distribution company is very fast and full of variables. Today, it has achieved good results, and even the person in charge of the theater chain can immediately reach a verbal contract with the distribution company on the phone and start expanding the screening. So how will Weinstein Films arrange the screenings for next week? Jenny and Cesare can only get the report until the weekend night, and there is not much room for comment. After all, Weinstein is an expert in this area. He must have his own ideas on how to arrange the screening to be most beneficial to him.

"We've always had to build our own distribution channels," Cesare and Jenny emphasized, "of course, now we can hand over to Disney to do the distribution, but without Weinstein, Touchstone's distribution strategy is only It can be said that it is average, and Weinstein is unlikely to continue this cooperation model with us. After all, this year is a difficult year for them. Once they get through the difficulties, they can choose to eat this cake by themselves. Sometimes some small productions Comedies can be distributed by us, so that we can market and act on our own will, of course, this is based on our great confidence in the quality of the film."

In this era, because digital copies have not yet replaced film copies, the distribution cost is still not low-one film copy is one cost, for low-cost films, it is necessary to achieve the widest release of more than 4,000 screens. At least 4,000 copies must be prepared. On the premise that one copy is 1,000 US dollars, this is a distribution fee of more than 4 million yuan. The theater chain and several major distribution companies are still arguing over this matter. In order to save distribution costs, the six majors continue to advocate that digital movies are the future, and require theater chains to upgrade and replace cheap film projection equipment with digital projection equipment. This will save money. The next big expense. Although in the future, this trend will bankrupt the current film giant Kodak, but now in 2005, it is still a joke for most people to replace film with digital.

So, in this era of high distribution costs, the world does not give you a good film, you distribute it and make a fortune. The entire marketing work is almost entirely the domain of the distributor, especially There is also a lot of knowledge about how to make a profit in the distribution of Olympic films-even if the Venice Film Festival has paid off (this is not a false propaganda), and there are two popular stars in the town, the release of "The Fifth Sally" is indeed true. It is a very skillful job. For example, the use of spot screening and carousel screening at the beginning can also effectively save copy costs. In addition to controlling word of mouth, it has another meaning...

And these knowledge are what Jenny and Cesare are trying to learn. "The Fifth Sally" is the release period product that Dameng Films knows best now, and they can conveniently Access to the release materials of "Sally", meeting recordings, schedules, including public relations expense reports, are all manifestations of Weinstein's publishing and Austrian wisdom. Even Cesare admits, "In the past few weeks, I have learned more publishing experience at Weinstein than I have learned during my internship at Disney headquarters."

"This is the fault of professional refinement." Jenny re-browsed the slides and said while rubbing her temples, "The good days of being an intern at a film company for a period of time and completely mastering the entire industry are long gone ...By the way, when do you plan to recruit for the publishing department?"

The Disney headquarters has been spinning off the distribution business for a while. Even if Cesare’s mother is a high-level executive in the production department, and his elder Robert Iger is now the CEO of Disney, it doesn’t mean they understand everything. Hollywood is a sophisticated machine. It also represents the specialization of talents. Jenny and Cesare are not learning these distribution knowledge because they want to negotiate contracts with theaters by themselves—it’s just that you must know more in order to recruit reliable talents to form a distribution department, right? Including some distribution strategies, if Dameng does the distribution by himself, it still needs the two of them to make a decision in the end.

"Did you go for a follow-up visit?" Cesare did not answer Jenny's words, but raised an eyebrow at her, "The briefing Mary gave me didn't mention that you still have headaches."

"And we really need to talk about why you can order my - privately hired - assistant to send you a briefing - about me." Jenny gave Mary a complaining look, "and The protagonist of the briefing - I, did not know the facts of this matter until recently."

Cesare folded his arms and continued to raise his eyebrows at her. Jenny sighed, "Fine! I have already been to the hospital. The doctor said that this is a normal sequelae of a concussion. Many people need three months to half a year to gradually recover. , of course, because Disney is paying for it, she still did an MRI for me. From the imaging point of view, my brain is normal, so the vomiting and headaches that I still have now and then should just be my body tormenting me. , not a sign of a malignant disease."

"I'll see your medical report next week," Cesare turned to Marie, "I'll see her medical report next week, if you're not here, Jim—and she needs to eat and drink as prescribed." Work and rest."

"Oh, Comeon!" Jenny yelled, but soon stopped shouting and rubbed her forehead. "——Anyway, when will we recruit for the distribution department?"

"Just wait until the post-production of "Unlucky Cupid" and "Old Friends Are Rich" is done. "Unlucky Cupids" may be handed over to another company, but I want to buy out the distribution rights of "Old Friends Are Rich" , I am more optimistic about this film." Cesare said, ""Old Friends with Money" is almost finished, I think it is very suitable for our first distribution film-compared with "Lovely Love", It has more stars, it has more depth, and as long as the finished product doesn't have serious quality issues, yes, I think we can start trying to distribute it."

It is not easy to build a film and television company from scratch. If it is not a son of a plane, with a database-level golden finger and a successful learning horse* golden finger, then the growth of a film and television company can be divided into two parts. It consists of several stages: cooperative investment-distribution-sole proprietorship production-peripheral operation, and the cost of each step is more than before. For example, Dameng adopted a very typical entry method: jointly invested in "Old Friends Are Rich" with other film and television companies, and paid a total of 5 million to hire a producer, and the producer spent money to hire stars and crews. Contact the props master, prepare for the shooting, and finally deliver the finished film. The company does not intervene in the actual shooting. The director and the producer, whoever belongs to the idea, has the most power. The risk of doing so is very small. Even if "Old Friends Are Rich" It is a loss of money, and the big dream is a loss of more than one million yuan. For a company with a start-up capital of 40 million yuan and stable financial resources (follow-up income such as "Prada" DVD), this is not unbearable. number.

For ordinary film and television production companies, this kind of investment is very in line with their appetite. They invest a few to a dozen in a year, and the investment is several million to ten million, unless it is so bad that there is no investment at all. People are willing to buy DVDs. Otherwise, in the worst case scenario, in the assumption that all investments are all on the street, about 20% of the investment will still be through successive channels such as box office, DVD sales, overseas copyright sales, and TV station copyright purchases. Return, and as long as a small half of the films achieve box office return, then the funds that will be withdrawn in the next few years can maintain the company's operation and reinvest. So there are so many small film companies like Hollywood, and it is also because this model is really comfortable.

However, for Jenny and Cesare, this model does not make them feel comfortable. Although the purpose is different, they come to dream big to make it bigger, otherwise Cesare might as well concentrate Sprinting for the position of CAA agent, Jenny doesn't need to find time to catch up on these business knowledge. Therefore, after initially grasping the company's operating conditions and recruiting a group of good professionals for the company through contacts, Cesare was discussing with Jenny the possibility of entering the field of TV drama production, and at the same time proposed the next development plan: The relatively cheap "Old Friends Are Rich" was used as an entry point, spending 6 million to buy out the copyright of the entire film, and testing the waters to establish a national distribution system.

Compared to the initial investment of 5 million, 6 million is equivalent to earning 1 million. For a film company where cash is king, an investment of more than 2 million can be fully realized in more than half a year. Take it back and make hundreds of thousands more. This profit is enough for independent films. After all, if you release it yourself, you won’t be able to get back the cost if you don’t get 20 million at the box office. The profit from DVD can only be a trickle. Now Being able to get back a large amount of cash at one time, the other two investment companies have nothing to be picky about. Therefore, the difficulty of negotiation should not be too great, and Dameng does have plenty of cash in his account now—except for investing in "Unlucky Cupid" and "Old Friends Are Rich", Cesare has not found a good investment suitable for investment. script. After all, big dreams are not very attractive to good scripts, and more screenwriters and producers still hope to give priority to cooperation with the four majors. Therefore, the company has been buying some short-term low-profit capital-guaranteed money funds for a while, so as not to let the money sit idle in the bank. Now that it is drawing 6 million to buy out the copyright, it will not pose any pressure on the company's finances.

Jenny thought about it: she has never watched "Friends Have Money", and she doesn't know if it makes money, but because she likes "Friends", she knows that Aniston is still in Hollywood in 2014 No. 1 female movie star, she often forms a PK trend with Angelina Jolie on the annual money-making list, and she seems to often appear on the cost-effective list, and she seems to be the most profitable actress for investors. Looking at it this way, "Old Friends Are Rich" should have a high probability of making a profit.

"Sure," Jenny said, "let's go and negotiate, but I don't think we'll be able to talk before the end of the year. Sundance is in January, and they're definitely hoping to get Friends Has Money at Sundance." "A high price."

"If that's the case, then we won't compete—that's good news for us, as it can be sold for a higher price than six million, indicating that this is a successful investment." Chesa Lei pursed his lips, "But I really want to express my appreciation to you. Being able to consider Sundance fully shows that you already have a preliminary business thinking. Jefferson, your judgment is consistent with my prediction."

"Wow," Jenny put down the file, "—Wow, did you hear that? Mary, am I not deaf? Mr. Vijay is really complimenting my progress?"

Mary and Jim snickered, and Cesare gave her a pointed look, "In addition, regarding the fifth item on the agenda, the film and television adaptation rights of the "Marley and Me" photo book, this is yours." What do you think about the proposal?"

"I had a hunch it would be a good movie," said Jenny. "Of course, it's a good book with no storyline, but the adaptations seem weak -- but I think that if we find it A good writer and it will be solved. Even I think we can get Jennifer again for the female lead - I mean Aniston, she has to be the best Rachel type character in the last ten years, you know what I mean Right? Sweetheart, kind of comedic, homey, kind, stuff like that."

"Intuitive choice." Cesare glanced at her from above the file, "You don't happen to have a favorite producer and screenwriter, do you?"

"Do you know? In fact, I have." Jenny thought for a while, took out a pen and paper and wrote two names, "Try to talk to them, and ask about Aniston's schedule, I think It would be a good project, maybe one of the Big Six would like to co-produce with us, if we can't find a partner, then we can do it ourselves, distributed by Weinstein or Disney - or even better, distributed by ourselves .”

"Hmmm." Cesare said, he looked at Jenny silently for a while, and Jenny looked back at him calmly—

Just as Mary and Jim exchanged anxious glances, Cesare closed the folder with a 'snap' and made a clean decision, "OK, then we'll do it."

A sympathetic smile appeared on the corner of Jenny's lips, and she glanced at Jim and Mary with a smile (the two behaved very consistent, as if they had just swallowed a boiled egg)——and Cesare They exchanged a look, "It seems that we have disappointed some people."

Cesare didn't look at her and smiled—he was never so friendly, but his eyes did contain something close to a smile, "It seems so."

Actually speaking, Jenny really doesn't know the production cost of "Marley and Me", but Chen Zhen did watch this movie in her previous life and liked it very much. I have seen the news that the North American box office of "Marley and Me" exceeded 100 million yuan, and from the perspective of the film itself, the production cost should not exceed 30 million yuan-this is still a wide estimate. However, memories are like stones in water. She never thought that Dameng could do "Marley and Me". Passengers were looking at the photo book and noticed that the original book of "Marley and Me" happened to be published this year, and it also made the New York Times list.

Although the "Twilight" series, which will be popular all over the world in the future, was on the New York Times list at the same time, and even "Twilight" was published earlier and became popular earlier than it, but Jenny couldn't catch up This is a wave of craze. Like "Twilight", which is popular all over the world, it is a bestseller slightly inferior to "Harry Potter". It is impossible to sell the adaptation rights to those who have not yet had a successful work big dream. For the original author, what she needs to see is that the novel series will be brought to the big screen as soon as possible by a powerful company, and the power to share in the big cake of future box office revenue. This is not a problem that can be solved simply by throwing money or sincerity. Besides, even if it is spending money, Dameng can't afford to spend on other companies now. The "Twilight" series is a fantasy movie, and the production cost required cannot be low. Even if the copyright fee and other expenses can solve the problem of the author's wishes, Jenny cannot take care of the purchase and production of "Twilight" while investing in other fields at the same time. ——In addition, in the first round of contact negotiations around "Twilight", there were many shadows of the Big Six, including Summit Entertainment, which won the bid in the end. The best conditions she could come up with, so Jenny just asked Jim to collect information, and then simply gave up the competition for "Twilight". In her prediction, what she must win should be "Twilight" a few years later. Hungry Games".

It is also a bestseller, but the difficulty of "Marley and Me" is much lower, because it is a photo book, and it tells the details of family life. Although this book has achieved good results in sales, However, not many people pay attention to film and television copyright, and the asking price of the copyright agent is not high, which is a very reasonable figure. You can buy out the adaptation rights of this book within five years with hundreds of thousands of dollars—because no one is there. Competing with the big dream, Fox, who originally filmed the movie, seems to have not noticed the book yet. After just a few days of negotiations, Dameng easily won the adaptation contract of "Marley and Me". However, it was Cesare who signed the contract. At this time, Jenny had already ended her short During the holiday, she took a large pack of pills and flew back to the filming base of "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Among the busy work, the time has entered December, and the work of the dream is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the filming of Jenny is gradually coming to an end. She and Christopher, who finished filming and returned to Los Angeles from London, together , once again invested in the Oscar public relations activities of "The Fifth Sally", and "The Fifth Sally" also ended the fourth round of small-scale screenings. It has received rave reviews from movie fans and praise from film critics for the two leading actors.

——After two months of small-scale screenings, the film also earned a solid box office of 27 million US dollars. It can be said that "The Fifth Sally" has achieved a lot commercially. The success of the film, whether it can be taken to a higher level, depends on whether it can get at least one major Oscar nomination...

The author has something to say: Note: 1 The distribution mentioned here is very important, it is true... Some people say that distribution is more difficult than making a movie, this is really a science. I don't know how to give specific examples, but in general novels, a self-organized company makes a good movie, and then miraculously, the distribution department that has just been established can do a good job of national distribution quickly, cheaply, and so on. It's weird to learn how to draw a horse*

2Successfully learn to draw a horse* You can Baidu to successfully learn to draw a horse. There is no malice, but I think the success model of the protagonist in many novels is more ridiculous than this kind of horse*... especially the kind that directs, acts, writes scripts, starts a company and invests...

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